My Favorite Purple Food

Eggplant stuffed with a sesame-peanut masala
Monday, June 25, 2007

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"5 Spices, 50 Dishes," by Ruta Kahate (Chronicle Books, 2007)

Coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, ground cayenne and ground turmeric are the five relatively commonplace spices featured in this slender book of Indian dishes. Although Ruta Kahate cheats a bit by using green chilies, ginger and garlic as additional flavors, she delivers on her promise to demystify her native food. Most ingredients can be found in a supermarket, and vegetarian offerings may satisfy even meat lovers.

-- Evelyn Shih

* * *

Eggplant stuffed with a sesame-peanut masala

• ¼ cup brown (natural) sesame seeds
• ½ cup raw or lightly toasted unsalted peanuts
• 1/3 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¼ cup plus 2 teaspoons water, divided
• 1 teaspoon finely grated garlic (about 2 large cloves)
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 8 mini Indian eggplants or 6 of the smallest Japanese or Italian eggplants you can find (about 1½ pounds)
• ¼ cup canola oil

Using a food processor, separately pulse the sesame seeds and peanuts to semi-coarse powders. Remove to a bowl. Add the cilantro, sugar, salt, 2 teaspoons of the water, garlic, cayenne and turmeric to the powdered mixture and mix well. The mixture should become lumpy. Taste and adjust the salt and sugar if needed.

Leaving the stem end intact, make 2 intersecting diagonal cuts on the bottom end of each eggplant. Stuff each "X" with the filling, packing it down well. It will feel awkward, but push in as much filling as the eggplant will take, using your fingers to gently pry open the eggplant.

Heat the oil in a skillet large enough to hold all the eggplants in a single layer. Gently place each eggplant in the pan, and turn the heat to medium. Turn them occasionally so they are evenly browned on all sides. Pour in the remaining water, cover, and cook on low until tender, about 15 minutes. To check doneness, pierce the stems with a small, sharp knife -- it should slide in easily.

Servings: 4 to 6.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

BOOK REVIEW: Divisadero

Novel a collection of stories
Sunday, June 24, 2007

DIVISADERO, by Michael Ondaatje; Alfred A. Knopf, 273 pages, $19.95.

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

If you open Michael Ondaatje's new book expecting one story, you will be disappointed. In fact, the central story line ends at Page 165 with more than 100 pages to go -- leaving you to wonder what happens to the protagonists.

Perhaps Ondaatje, who wrote "The English Patient" and "Anil's Ghost," described the book best. In an early scene, the "woman formerly known as Anna" tells in first person the way she and her adopted sister Claire thought about Cooper, another adoptee that their father treated as a farm hand.

"Who was Coop, really? We never knew what his parents were like. We were never sure what he felt about our family, which had harboured him and handed him another life. ... Everything was collage."

Everything in "Divisadero" certainly feels like collage. The book reads more like a collection of short stories that hover around a knot of characters, painting lives in daubs. Chapters jump between viewpoints, skip years, and sometimes vault several thousand miles.

We're with Coop and Anna as their forbidden sexual relationship develops, and we're there when her father discovers them and rages violently, destroying their assembled four-member family forever. (In retrospect, Anna calls it "something very small, something that might occur within just a square inch or two of a Brueghel. But it set fire to the rest of my life.")

We're in Coop's fast-paced heist story as he becomes a card sharp who can "deal a pack of cards to the Supreme Court and get away with it," and we come back to him later to follow another ruse, where the joke's on him.

We're with Claire as she works meekly in a law office during the week and rides horses on the weekend. We're with Anna in France, years later, as she researches an obscure, dead French poet from his last known residence.

It is the life of this poet, Lucien Segura, in which we are immersed after the sudden end of the first narrative. The only tenuous ties are Anna's obsession with him and the minor presence of the boy Rafael, who would grow to be Anna's middle-aged lover. Can we help but mourn the early loss of our good friends, whom we now know so intimately?

But as the second act continues, spinning out the tale of Lucien with a full cast of characters and perspectives, we realize that it is no loss after all. The power of Ondaatje's (pictured left, courtesy of www2.davidson.edu) book is not to deliver the thrill of a plot line, with exposition, development and full denouement. He does deliver that on the small scale, building to climactic moments in individual segments like a masterful short story writer; but the real payoff is in the totality.

Fall in love, the book seems to say. Fall in love with the little details that make up the characters' lives, no matter if they span half the world and skip a century; and in turn, fall in love with the human life in general. In another beautiful passage, in which Rafael puts together details about his new lover even as she scrounges for scraps about the poet, he wonders:

"Who is she? This woman who has led him into this medicine cabinet of a room where most of her possessions exist. ... As if this orderly collection of things is what she is. So we fall in love with ghosts."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Greek--But Not So Big and Fat

Cauliflower with tomatoes and feta
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A NEW LEAF

Vegetarian recipes from recently released cookbooks:

"Eating the Greek Way," by Fedon Alexander Lindberg (Clarkson Potter, 2007)

Eating Greek means eating healthy -- at least, when you're eating with Lindberg. Born and raised in Greece, Lindberg began studying internal medicine and endocrine disorders because he was worried about diabetes in his family. He now owns four clinics in Norway, where he is also well-known as a food writer. Perhaps it's only to be expected that Lindberg's cookbook prefaces the recipes with a hearty 45-page dietary primer. Lindberg explains the nutritional balance in Greek food and parses terms like "glycemic load" (GL) that are listed with each recipe. He teaches you how to measure portions with your palm, plans sample weekly menus, and even suggests how to stock your kitchen. Vegetables and legumes are low in GL -- a positive quality -- and most meals require two palm-sized portions, so vegetarian and vegetable-based recipes are bountiful.

-- Evelyn Shih

# Cauliflower with tomatoes and feta

2 tablespoons clarified butter
1 large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper
1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add onion and garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, cinnamon and a little salt and pepper. Stir well, cover and simmer for approximately 5 minutes.

Add the cauliflower florets to the tomato sauce, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Top with the feta. Bake until the cauliflower is tender and the cheese has melted, about 40 minutes. Serve hot.

Servings: 4.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Got Counseling?

Counselors are school's Mr./Ms. Fix-It
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

By now, high school seniors are getting themselves ready for college life. High school is fast becoming a memory. And the school counselors who masterminded the college admissions battle are only too glad to have a huge weight off their shoulders.

But their work is never really done.

"We fix everything here," said Amy Bria, school counselor at Rosa Parks High School in Paterson.

For four years, high school counselors are parents who advise on life and academic decisions without a parent's power to command. They are faculty members who proctor tests and visit classrooms without classrooms of their own. They are, in short, the essential but largely unnoticed cogs in a school's machinery.

And, at least until recently, in much of New Jersey they were more likely to be overlooked as a profession by the very students they nurtured academically. To renew interest in the profession and keep pace with industry changes, the state Department of Education in 2004 dropped a requirement that high school guidance counselors be current or former teachers in the schools in which they work.

"We were losing good people," said Mark McGrath, president of the New Jersey School Counselor Association. Now instead of teachers in the workforce studying to be counselors through night classes, college students with psychology and sociology backgrounds can go to graduate school and expect to start work as counselors straight out of the program, he said.

"There's been a minor spurt [in counselors]," added McGrath, who works in Lawrenceville. Indeed, the number of counselors in New Jersey saw a slight uptick in the past five years, rising to 2,702 during the 2006-07 school years, up from 2,512 in 2001-02 , according to the state Board of Education.

That is good news for North Jersey students, who already enjoy more attention from counselors than many of their peers across the state and nation.

Local high school guidance counselors serve just 220 students each, on average. Compare that with guidance counselors throughout New Jersey and the nation who divide their time among hundreds more students: 386 on average in New Jersey, and 488 nationwide.

The numbers point to a fact of life for high school guidance counselors: You have to learn to juggle and react.
(clip art to left courtesy of scoutbase.co.uk)
Of course, there's consulting on college applications and life after high school, but they also work as liaisons between parents and teachers, update academic records, perform a variety of administrative tasks, and, of course, bond with students. They also take over general faculty duties: Bria, for one, leads the National Honor Society and proctors tests.

But the job can change from hour to hour. During an interview in Bria's office, a teacher approached her with a discipline problem, and she agreed to see a female student who was acting out during lunch.

Added Bill Joosten, who has served as guidance counselor for more than 40 years, most recently at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale: "You really can't do a lot of planning with all this stuff going on, because the minute you sit down to do something, someone's at your door and they need help."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

JVC: J for Jazz, not Japan

Annual JVC events mark big birthdays
Friday, June 15, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

If you don't think it's already "too darn hot," check out the JVC Jazz Festival taking place in Manhattan -- and soon you'll feel "Fever in the morning/fever all through the night."

The lineup this year for the annual gathering of jazz minds -- which begins Tuesday and runs through June 30 -- includes big names like Keith Jarrett, Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis (brother of Wynton) and Kenny Barron. The list reads like a who's who, like always.

Ron Carter, courtesy of kaufman-center.org.

But the story this year is big birthdays.

Bassist Ron Carter and chanteuse Nancy Wilson celebrate their 70th years, while saxophonist Lee Konitz and singer Eartha Kitt hit high notes for their big 8-0s. Each of the legendary performers will be having a Carnegie Hall bash under the auspices of the JVC festival.

"We did a little research and just found those special moments that we really wanted to celebrate," said Dan Melnick, festival programmer. Konitz's and Carter's nights will feature them playing in various formats with different collaborators. Kitt will be appearing with her band and singing duets with three Tony Award-winning singers. Wilson will sing with her own band as well but receive salute performances from other jazz artists instead of singing with them.

Lee Konitz, courtesy of jazzaction.co.uk

Konitz, who celebrates his real birthday in October, says he has more gigs than ever. "The 80th year is kind of a magical time," he said. "They want to get it before it's too late. ... When I look at the list [of engagements], I wonder how I'm going to make it. I am getting older."

Jazz fest info, tickets

---

Main events for the JVC Jazz Festival will take place at Carnegie Hall. For those performances, buy tickets online at carnegiehall.org or call 212-247-7800.

For information on all performances, go to festivalproductions.net, and click on "JVC Jazz Festival, New York." A full schedule is available on the site.

Carter commented that he relishes the opportunity to play with old friends. In one concert configuration, he will be playing in a quartet with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Billy Cobham -- "I haven't played with those guys for 25 or 30 years," he said.

Alternately, in a touring trio with drummer Russell Malone and pianist Mulgrew Miller, the audience can "hear me try to manipulate their sounds to match mine." Carter also plays a few string duets with guitarist Jim Hall and swings with a new quartet -- "new" meaning a mere 10 years old.

Although the Carnegie Hall engagements are the centerpiece of the festival, smaller events at various venues give vastly different audience experiences. Sarah Partridge, an actress turned jazz singer who lives in South Orange, will be singing a weeklong engagement in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, an intimately small space in contrast with the grand hall.

Sarah Partridge, courtesy of sarahpartridge.net

"This room will be a little formal, and you can hear a pin drop," said Partridge, who sang there last year. "People are there really to hear the music."

She performs with pianist Allen Farnham, bassist Bill Moring and drummer Tim Horner, all from Teaneck. "We call them the 'Teaneck Trio,' " said Partridge.

A diverse lineup has always been central to the festival's mission, said programmer Melnick. Part of that objective has been to feature emerging jazz artists from around the world. West African Lionel Loueke, Israeli Avishai Cohen and Anat Fort, Cape Verde native Cesaria Evora, and Indian-Americans Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa are among the many artists bringing their own musical heritage to the melting pot that is jazz.

"There is a lot of musicians all over the world who are attracted to jazz and play jazz," said Melnick, adding, "There might be more young jazz musicians who are living in New York now from other countries."

But some things about jazz never change. "If you think about it, jazz is usually in the basement," said Konitz, who will be playing in the lower level Zankel Hall at Carnegie. "If you play softly, you can hear the subway."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Doppelganger

Ridgewood resident a Superman of sorts
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Vince A. Sicari, attorney at law, leads a double life. During the day, the River Edge lawyer works at a Ridgewood law office, driving to various court dates across North Jersey.

But when he leaves, he makes a beeline for a New York comedy club, stopping by the side of the road to change out of his suit. By the time he hits the stage and grabs a mike, he isn't Vince A. Sicari anymore. He is Vince August, stand-up comedian and actor.

Tomorrow he headlines a show at Carolines, one of the top comedy clubs in the city, and will record his second comedy DVD.

Like most comics, Vince August makes fun of his life onstage. He might even joke about intimate sex moments. But he never, never talks about Vince A. Sicari.

"I refuse to do a law joke," said August. "... Superman doesn't talk about Clark Kent."

Vince A. Sicari works in a solo practice, a situation that allows him to dash out for acting auditions and stand-up comedy sets. Associates have never asked him where he goes when he leaves early or disappears in the middle of the day.

"You always hope for office days," said August. "When I have to go into court, it really puts a wrinkle in my day."

August does closing sets at the Laugh Factory, another Manhattan club, four nights a week. "I'm working 250 nights a year," he said. "I pretty much never say no to a gig. If a club calls me at 6 o'clock [at night] and says, 'Will you fill in?' I'll do it." Sometimes he's in the city until the wee hours of the morning; but when the clock strikes 9 a.m., he is once again Vince A. Sicari.

"I'm not a funny lawyer -- I'm a funny comedian," said August.

It's a point of pride for the comic, who never stepped inside a comedy club -- or pursued any sort of entertainment career -- until the age of 27. The son of Italian immigrants in Hackensack, August was told from a young age that he had to stay in school and have a real career, even though he knew at age 7 that he wanted to "be on TV."

So Vince Sicari went to college. He went to law school. He started working at a firm. But one day 10 years ago, he made a comedy tape and sent it to a friend. Later that evening, he got a call.

"He said, 'We're dying laughing over here,' " said August. "He was the one who told me, 'You've got to do something with it.' "

August took a comedy class. The final product of the course was a six-minute stint at Carolines, which he calls the "mecca" of comedy clubs. The class instructor required all students to turn in final versions of comedy scripts and then rewrote most of August's material. But August had turned in a fake script in anticipation of this.

On the night of that debut performance, August listened to the awkward silence as his classmates performed one by one and drew little laughter. Finally, it was his turn.

"I just went on there, and I just set the place on fire," he said.

Right after the show, August was booked to do a set at Gotham, another high-profile comedy club, and his career started to take off. In August 2004, August snagged the opportunity to open a show for one of his comic heroes, Andrew Dice Clay (pictured left , courtesy of comedycentral.com).

"His crowds are very unique," said August. "They're brutal. If you don't win them over in the first 20 seconds, that will be the most miserable 10 minutes of your life."

But he must have done something right, because that night, the owner of the Laugh Factory asked him to book a regular gig. And that's when Superman really started to fly.

"For me, the stand-up is a drug," said August. "I can't even explain the high you get from being onstage performing in front of people."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com


Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

Jazz Fest

WPU's Miller joins Peterson tribute
Friday, June 8, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

The one-day Fujitsu Jazz Festival swings into Carnegie Hall tonight with a tribute to legendary pianist Oscar Peterson (pictured left, courtesy of npr.org). The all-star lineup includes Hank Jones, Marian MacPartland and Mulgrew Miller, all of whom will be tickling the ivories, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, guitarist Russell Malone and trumpeter Clark Terry.

Festival producer Pat Philips says they chose to honor Peterson "because he deserves it and has really never gotten a big tribute in America." The 82-year-old Canadian musician has been honored in his native country, but never here. Peterson, who is not well, is unable to attend the concert; his wife and daughter will be present.

Miller, the director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University, took some time to speak on the phone about the tribute, being a jazz musician and training young talents.

Q. With whom will you be performing at the concert?

I'll be playing in a band with [bassist] Christian McBride and [drummer] Lewis Nash. We've played together and know each other very well, personally and musically. And Wynton Marsalis will be joining us, another old friend. I'll be amongst friends, so to speak. That said, we do have our own respective bands, so we don't play together (often).

Festivals are devised to draw a lot of people to the music. So that a large group of people can see top musicians play together.

Mulgrew Miller, hard at work. Courtesy of internationajazzproductions.com

Q. What is your role with the WPU Jazz Studies program?

I'm one of the overseers of the program. I teach what's called small ensembles: I supervise a small group that you would see in a nightclub and coach them.

They're all on a pretty high level since they have to audition to get into the program. ... I find it very stimulating to be there with them because they're so young, enthusiastic and eager to learn.

When I was first offered the job [in September 2005], I wasn't sure how I would like it. I was just kind of testing the situation and testing myself in the situation. I'd always taught; I've done workshops and things before. So it wasn't totally foreign. But to have a commitment to an institution where you're coming back week after week was a whole new thing for me.

The part I didn't expect was the personal connection with the kids. After awhile, they become a part of your life, almost a part of your family. You start to think of them as your children.

Q. Where do your students play?

There are some clubs near Newark, Cecil's and Trumpets, where some of them hang out. ... Quite a few of them hang out in New York. But not many of them have graduated to the actual scene.

Q. How do you balance your duties at the university with your busy performance schedule?

It's a very, very delicate balancing act. I'm in school Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I have a long weekend to myself for touring. So I'm touring on weekends now. Once a semester, I might go out for two weeks in Europe and Japan.

Q. What are you doing this summer?

Right after the Oscar Peterson tribute, I'm going to be in New York making a record with [bassist] Ron Carter. And right after that I'm going to Europe with Ron Carter. Then right after a Ron Carter tribute in New York [during the JVC festival], I'm going back to Europe with him. I have a full plate.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.